A "Hmmmm....How Interesting" weekend!

Hmmm, so it's almost 7 o'clock at night, my memory seems a little bit foggy and all I can actually remember about this weekend is that it was wonderful, and I'm looking forwards to my first 3 day in a while. Three days in a row with George!!!

Saturday was fun, I tossed George's saddle on and we did some "hill therapy" with cavelettis. He was like a different horse! No much brace, he moved much better, he wasn't bracy, he was physically and mentally able to walk...he was just great!

Sunday was a whole other ball game. They say to play with the horse that shows up, but sometimes, you get a new horse in the same session. I have still been having trouble getting George to accept the stick and string. When they are not attached to me then they are super-tasty chew toys, when I am holding them I am super-predator. I've started long-distance coaching with 2* Parelli Professional Linda C Richards, and she just GETS me! And George! She reccommended that I try leading George from the shoulder while swinging the stick and string in a figure eight pattern, and that would've worked if he would go within 6 feet of me while I had the stick and string. He went RB and wouldn't come out of it, so I walked my happy butt over to the fence rail and swung the stick and string there, so he could only gallop in a half-circle and I'd have something to hang on to if he decided to back out of the pressure. I made sure my belly button wasn't facing him, no matter which way he went and the second he planted his feet I stopped, faced him, and smiled. It took maybe 5 minutes until I was tossing the string over top of him, around in a helicopter, and around his legs. He wasn't totally okay with it, but he wasn't completely right-brained about it either. He just needed to stop his feet to think. Hmmm...how interesting.

After we got through that point, George went TOTALLY left brained! He became snotty, he bucked online, he perked his ears at me, watched my every move, had tons of draw, he acted instead of reacted, it was just amazing. I was dumbfounded. My whole plan went out the window and we just had fun! George is crazy-awesome! And so cute! He is just so big with such big movement, he's the reason they say go through Level 3 on the ground before getting in the saddle! As much as I'm itching to ride, and I mean I have never wanted to ride a horse so badly, I am in no hurry to get up on George. He has to really be ready and I'm not sure he is yet. And that's okay! I wish I could get rid of the stigma that the only time you can have fun with a horse is when you ride. I have a blast with horses on the ground, and I have a ton of fun with George, I know that when I start riding him then it's going to be just as much fun!

Having fun checking out what Mom did with the poles. 

 Realizing that I am still over here!

The look on his face when I really get the right itchy spot! 

BOTH EARS!!! 

*ALSO* I talked to the gal at the feed store and talked to her about a particular problem I have been having with George. The boy gets at least two flakes of hay per feeding, and eats maybe half a flake at a time. If I give him grain, he'll take a bite, then leave, then come back later when he's bored enough to eat. I would really like to put some more weight on George, at least muscle, and he needs it in his topline! This is a senior-feed grain because I want some weight on him without getting him hot, and I'm getting nothin.I had his teeth done and he still does this but has been eating more of his hay. She reccommended that I get Hi-Pro Sweet 4(I think it's called), a sweet feed that most the race-trainers around here use. The second he smelled it, he whinnied! I poured him a small amount of it while he paced the fence, then when I set it down and allowed him to come in, he devoured it! Yay! I missed in some sand-blast so clean out his system of sand and he ate it all. My good boy!

1st Time in a REAL Saddle!

I was expecting much more of a rodeo than I got today! We had vicious wind yesterday and today, but today I braved it to go see my lovable little boy!

My saddle arrived this week and I've been itching to use it! George has been such a dream lately I really had this idea in my head that I was just going to put the saddle on him, get on and go! Instead I went out to the barn with the idea of saddling with savvy, then playing the seven games.

George seemed as happy to see me as I was to see him. He trotted up to me with his ears forward, sniffed me and tried to take a bite out of my arm. I couldn't help myself, I busted out laughing. It just reminded me of why George became mine and what on Earth I had gotten myself into. I love this horse, he's something else!

I brought out the saddle, theraflex pad and girth(sans-stirrups and leathers so I wouldn't feel tempted) and draped them over the fence while I gave George a good scratched and groomed him up. I love that it only took a few weeks for him to stand without anything on his head for me to groom him! And I don't know why I look at him and still see a hairy beast! Luckily he was born down the street from where I keep him so his body just must know the weather changes better than other horses in the area???

I slipped on the halter and 12-foot rope (our first time really playing on the 12 foot!) and sent him over to the saddle. He was semi-interested, as I went through the process of saddling with savvy. I think he was more interested in the fact that my used theraflex smells like another horse! I saddled him from the "wrong" side, and he didn't care at all. *NOTICE: this was George's first time with a real saddle on his back!* Uh oh, girth was way too small, or so I thought. I just barely got it on the first hole, moved him around a little, played the circling game one circle each way, and the girth magically could go up two holes! Played some more, one more hole. In hindsight, I deffinetly should have seen if I could've gotten the girth tighter, but I checked each time and each time it already felt tight to me. More on that later.

I had two shims in the front of my theraflex and one in the middle. I decided to take the one out of the middle and stick in the front. My "new" saddle is a hilason flex tree dressage/trail saddle. I love it!!! But once I got it up there I think I may have turned pale at the realisation of how tall my 16.2 HH still growing boy is. Crud.

I think that the saddle is too far back, visually. But the boy has TONS of movement in his shoulder and it goes back really far!

I also vividly recalled my fierce hatred for saddles. I was prepared for mental instability on George's part, I was prepared for the spooking and learning curve for new things. I was not prepared for the fact that my goergeous athlete lost his ability to move when the saddle was placed on his back. Duh!!! Why would I expect otherwise??? Okay fine, I was really, really really hoping otherwise!  
I do not, however, blame the saddle. It is very wide and I think it's pretty well shimmed, his sweat pattern was perfect when the saddle came off. George has never had a treed saddle (or a person weighing more that 120lbs) on his back before, only a racing "saddle" and a jockey. It's only natural that he would need to learn how to move with these things on his back.

Here's some videos of the madness:

Don't get me wrong here. I've seen MUCH worse. I can see here that he is trying, he just keeps tipping his nose in like he wants to carry himself, he's just not sure how.

After this I decided to put him on the 22-foot line and let him canter a little bit. Suffice to say, it wasn't pretty...BUT he didn't rush it! Then all hell broke loose. He went right-brained and started galloping and the saddle slipped and only made him more scared. I got him stopped as the saddle was completely on his right side. I managed to get the girth unhooked without the saddle slipping under his belly all the way and let it drop to the ground > why I bought a USED saddle! I sat and rubbed him until he calmed down then started all over again. Break here for 45 minutes of walking away from George swinging the stick and string...do this every time we play and aren't getting anywhere. Once I got the pad and saddle on him without him going introverted or freaking out, I slipped them off him, took off his halter and went to put the saddle away.

I must have done something right because when I came back we came right up to me and set his forehead against my tummy. Ahhhhh happiness.

So the goal right now is to start doing hill therapy with George with the saddle on...if that makes any sense. And since we don't have hills in the desert and I don't want to use barrels due to George's old track injury, I think the best bet for him would be to use cavelettis, and to teach him to carry himself in a saddle before I ever get on him.

Also going to contact a PP today. I just...I've never had or played with a horse that reacted instead of acted so much before, and George still doesn't accept the carrot stick and string. I'm at a stop-loss here. Despite the fact that my stick and string are both trashed from George's love of chewing on them, once they are in my hand he flips out and I cannot be trusted. This is frustrating for me because I've spent so much time with him just trying to build rapport. When I think we are getting somewhere I'm wrong. I need an abject perspective to tell me what I am doing wrong to not set him up for success here. Hopefully I can get the help I need!

I have professional goals, and George is a super-horse. If I can get through to him then he could take me so far! I get out of the Army in October and want to find myself at the Parelli Center...but we're just not at the point that we could send in a video and it been good enough to catch anyone's eye! But once again, I must set back and insist on putting the relationship first!

Nailing Jell-O to the Wall

George is truly unlike any horse I've ever dealt with before! ONE horsenality cannot describe him, the only traits he really doesn't display continuously are those of the Left Brained Introvert. He has a very high play drive and is very loveable, but is mostly a right brained horse. At least right now. He is not a confident learner at all. It's very frustrating to me because I've only had LBI's and played with every other horsenality BUT the RBI, and it's been a learning experienced. Remember: if you are frustrated, learning is right around the corner. Here are George's Horsenality Reports. I'm interested in what on earth is going on here and can't wait to see how he changes in the future!

Good Times!!!

I had a pretty good weekend all-in-all with George. Saturday he was just a doll! We finally moved up to playing the circling game. I read somewhere that going through the other games is okay even if you are still having friendly problems. George is absolutely fine with me on his right side playing friendly, but on the left side he goes catatonic and then explodes! I've been spending most of our time together just trying to build rapport and get him comfortable with it, but it's just not happening. I figured if we continued to move on then he would be more inclined to beleive I'm not going to kill him with the stick! So we played the first five games, mostly went great!

Geroge was very happy at the circling game! We played on a 22-foot line, as always, and he kept TONS of slack in it. He is much better going to the right then to the left...not what I expected from a racehorse! Going to the left all he wanted was to stop and come in, so I let him, backed him up and sent him out again. With my last levels horse, I taught him to slow down on a circle by relaxing my body then wiggling on the rope. George was NOT okay with this! I relaxed my body then wiggled slightly on the rope and he went, "WHAT??? What happened to phase 1???" turned and faced me and backed up as quickly as possible to the end of the rope. Whoops, guess he's too sensitive for that one! I brought him in and gave him lots of love!

Then vet was due out so I decided to see if my "horse that doesn't tie" tied or not. This is what he thought about being tied:

I let him stand tied for about 30 minutes and decided it was a non-event, and my ropes are now a little worse for wear. But that's okay!

He was a wonder for the vet! He got all of his shots, blood drawn for his coggins, microchipped, and his teeth done and sheath cleaned! He was great for everything! Sunday came around and he still didn't have any bumps and such so I'm guessing he didn't have any bad reactions! I also noticed on Sunday that he finished all of his grain and most of his hay that morning! Usually he leaves more than half of both! The vet said that she took all the sharp points off his teeth but he had yet to get three of his adult teeth so his mouth will still be hurting a little until they came in completely. Here's a few pics of my little nerd!

playing the squeeze game of his own accord!

Also, she helped me decode George's fading lip tattoo! I sent it in to the Jockey Club and they sent me the link to his information. His damn is Playin the Blues and his sire is BGs Drone. His sire won over a million dollars in his track career, his dam's sire one over 3 million, George won a total of $268. I love him anyways!  He raced three times and the last time broke his sesamoid bone, I feel very blessed that his owner decided to save his life and just a few months ago gave him to me. He hasn't taken a lame step and he is a wonderful, intersting and challenging partner. I truly believe that he will be my superhorse!


Also, my saddle finally came today! yay! I can't wait to start playing with it! Maybe I'll ride him some time in the next few weeks!